Atelier Seraji

Architect

Nasrine Seraji, an English architect of Iranian origin, uses a systematic approach to her thinking about the relation between program, context and space. In her architecture she seeks to highlight “even the smallest acts of daily life.” She responds to the complexity of constraints (site, program, client and construction process) by designing fragmented spaces, in oblique geometries and by disrupting the planes of perception. Erecting a building is a matter of resolving a problem: the void will serve as the raw material for the solution, and its representation provides the tool for rethinking architecture and reinventing necessity. “To build the void is to build space” the architect asserts. In numerous projects, a use is made of the gap by assigning it certain functions: cloister, garden, light well, alcoves or emergency exits. The issue of the role of the void is also raised to question the classic oppositions between house and apartment, private and public, individual and collective.

A graduate of the Architectural Association (1983), Nasrine Seraji-Bozorgzad (Teheran) founded her firm in France in 1990. In 2006, she formed a partnership with Roland Oberhofer and Nicolas Février named Atelier Seraji Architectes et Associés. Several important projects have been built in France (Homage to the architects, extension for the Architecture School, Lille, 2004-2006, 14-18. Musée de la Caverne du dragon (Museum of the Dragon Cave), Aisne, 1996-98) and abroad (Endlesshaus, Vienna, 2003; Metropolis Garden City, Penang, 2004) She also does a great deal of teaching and has headed several architecture schools, and has been at the head of the Ecole Nationale Supérieure d’Architecture Paris-Malaquais since 2006. In 2008, she was awarded with the title of Chevalier de l’Ordre National du Mérite (Knight of the National Order of Merit) as well as the Silver Medal of Education by the French Academy of Architecture.